In crowded gyms, a user may utilize a piece of exercise equipment a mere few minutes or even seconds after another user completed use of the same equipment. With such a short time interval between users, there exists a possibility for disease or bacteria transmission between users due to bodily fluids left on the exercise equipment.
In addition to the possibility of disease and/or bacteria transmission, most people find it highly unpleasant to utilize or grasp exercise equipment which is coated in sweat or other bodily fluids from another user. For these reasons, many gyms request that each user wipe down or clean exercise equipment after use. Unfortunately, such cleaning requests are seldom followed by gym users. Even in the rare instance where a user follows a gym's cleaning requests, the user's cleaning of the exercise equipment is likely ineffective and serves little to no actual cleaning value.
When exercising on a piece of gym equipment with designated handgrips, such as a stationary bike and/or stationary bike designed for group exercise, there is a very real hygiene hazard posed by perspiration buildup on the designated handgrips. In addition, designed handgrips do not absorb a user's sweat during use. Consequently, a slippage hazard due to decreased grip caused by perspiration buildup on the designated handgrips exists. This slippage hazard is most notable for stationary bikes designed for group exercise, whereon a rider often changes his or her hand position between several designed handgrips and switches between a seating and standing position, all while operating the stationary bike at a very high intensity. Furthermore, the use of a stationary bike and/or stationary bike designed for group exercise requires a high level of physical exertion, causing the user to sweat profusely, which creates uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions.
Due to these reasons, many users carry a towel when they utilize exercise equipment generally, and more specially, a stationary bike and/or stationary bike designed for group exercise. Due to the highly physical and movement centric nature of utilizing a stationary bike and/or stationary bike designed for group exercise, towels carried by users of these types of exercise equipment often fall off the stationary bike and land on the unsanitary ground, get caught in the mechanism of the stationary bike or otherwise operate as a hindrance to effective exercise. In these instances, towels carried by users become both unclean and act as a safety hazard. In addition, the mere use of a towel alone in conjunction with a stationary bike and/or stationary bike designed for group exercise does not prevent the slipping hazard created by perspiration buildup on the handgrips, sanitize the equipment, or prevent a user's own sweat from dripping onto the equipment and/or handgrips.
Therefore there exists an unmet need for a novel exercise equipment cover generally, and a novel cover for use in conjunction with a stationary bike and/or stationary bike designed for group exercise specifically, which provides for handgrip sweat absorption, increase handgrip grip and acts as a sanitary barrier between a current user's and previous user's bodily fluids, as well as providing for a fully functional removable towel that can be safely and easily stored and used by a user during his or her use of a stationary bike and/or stationary bike designed for group exercise.
Covers for exercise equipment generally are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,997, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0099779 and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0258274 disclosed covers for exercise equipment. In addition, covers relating to a stationary bike specifically are disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0147102.
Importantly, none of the foregoing examples disclose and thus, there remains a need for, easily removable sweat absorbent exercise equipment cover with an integrated releasably attachable towel that can be used by a user while operating the exercise equipment, which provides for handgrip sweat absorption, increase handgrip grip and acts as a sanitary barrier between a current user's and previous user's bodily fluids. This unmet need is especially relevant in the field of stationary bikes and/or stationary bike designed for group exercise, as well as any other exercise equipment that comprise fixed handgrips. The present invention provides for a novel device that solves this unmet need.